Africa Great Lakes Democracy Watch

Welcome toAfrica Great Lakes Democracy Watch Blog.Our objective is to promote the institutions of democracy,social justice,Human Rights,Peace, Freedom ofExpression, and Respect to humanity in Rwanda,Uganda,DR Congo, Burundi,Sudan, Tanzania, Kenya,Ethiopia, and Somalia. We strongly believe that Africa will develop if only our presidents stop being rulers of men and become leaders of citizens. We support Breaking the Silence Campaign for DR Congo since we believe the democracy in Rwanda means peace inDRC. Follow this link to learn more about the origin of the war in both Rwanda and DR Congo:http://www.rwandadocumentsproject.net/gsdl/cgi-bin/library

Thursday, November 10, 2011

RWANDA:Rwanda hearing of Tutsi ex-rebel case postponed

KIGALI (AFP) – A Rwandan military court on Monday postponed the
hearing of a plea to free a Congolese Tutsi ex-rebel chief, detained in
Rwanda for the past two years, his lawyer said. ”The clerk’s office
decided to postpone the hearing sine die because the judge (General
Steven Karyango) has been suspended,” Aime Bokanga, a lawyer for Laurent
Nkunda, told AFP. ”We’re waiting for a new judge to be appointed. Under
Rwandan law he needs to be a general because the person we have brought
proceedings against is a general,” the lawyer said. This latest
postponement is the fourth since the case was sent to the military
courts. Nkunda’s lawyers say General James Kabarebe, former Rwandan army
chief of staff who was appointed defence minister in April, is
responsible for the “arrest and illegal detention” of their client.

In March Rwanda’s supreme court ruled
that given Kabarebe’s military status, it was not competent to hear the
plea. Nkunda was arrested in Gisenyi on Rwanda’s border with the
Democratic Republic of Congo on January 22, 2009, when he was head of
the rebel National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP)
movement, according to people close to him. In October 2008, Nkunda’s
men routed the DR Congolese army in Nord-Kivu province and threatened to
take the strategic provincial capital, Goma, near the border with
Rwanda. But after a shift in alliances, the Congolese and Rwandan armies
in January 2009 launched an unprecedented joint operation targeting
Rwandan Hutu rebels in eastern DR Congo, which also resulted in Nkunda’s
arrest.